Video identification systems with video monitoring and/or video recording have been developed in the past. However, for one reason or another, most previously suggested systems have met with limited success either due to their high cost and complexity. For example, some prior art systems required users to keep video records for each camera or device when only one complete record is desired. In addition, several VISs incorporate video identification recording devices such as palm readers, bar scanner, and magnetic strip readers as a means for gathering and recording additional information making the need for a single combined record even more essential and desirable. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,821,118 to Lafreniere describes a system equipped with a video imager capable of taking a still picture of a person's face with one camera and a still picture of a person's palm and a piece of identification with another camera and recording them for retrieval purposes later. Other patents, such as U.S. Pat. No. 4,449,189 to Feix et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 4,581,634 to Williams, disclose speech recognition devices and badge scanners for recording additional personal information and storing the same for retrieval and archival purposes. Still other patents such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,283,644 to Maeno and U.S. Pat. No. 5,012,522 to Lambert incorporate elaborate comparators, video identifiers and the like for authorizing access to secured areas and/or detecting unwanted intruders.
For the most part, the prior art inventions are overly complex and record either too much information, too little information or record the information on separate recording devices or on different records and formats making retrieval overly burdensome and slow. In addition and primarily due to their many components and bulky features, most of the prior systems have to be permanently installed at a specific area making portability of the unit difficult and in some instances entirely impracticable. So far as is known, none of the prior art devices disclose a portable VIS wherein a first camera monitors and records a first image until a second camera is activated upon the happening of an event. Nor is there known a system wherein a second camera then records a person's personal indicia on the same record and then switches back to the first camera for continued monitoring and recording.